Sen. Mike Lee says he's ready to back "a House-passed spending bill that canceled money for most of the 75 public works projects the Obama administration announced grants for in October," including a new streetcar system envisioned by Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker. Sen. Orrin Hatch disagrees with Lee, arguing that the streetcar project was part of a competitive grant process and should be funded.
Early indications are that several are not inclined to accept the House's decision to scale back the grants. One exception is Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who is ready to let the grants expire, including Salt Lake City's.
"With a $1.65 trillion deficit and $14 trillion national debt, there is no question we need to look at serious spending reductions. A logical place to start would be money that has been allocated but not spent," Lee said.
"It doesn't suggest the merits of a particular program or project is bad, though there are certainly many things in the federal budget that would be better handled at the local level," Lee said. "But it does suggest that, at the very least, perhaps we should wait to spend money on these programs and projects until after we have made significant progress on reducing our debt and getting our economy back on track."
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Lee is doing what we elected him to do. For decades, Bennett and Hatch (good men, both) have been considered "good politicians" because they were good at bringing Federal money to Utah. But now we have an over-whelming deficit threatening to literally destroy the U.S., and Senator Hatch may need to re-think what it means to be a "good senator."
I also believe that Utah has grown to the point where it has come into its own. We can now afford to fund our own improvements. For example, we can implement toll roads for highly traveled highway. I've seen this work very well in other states.
At one time I lived in NJ, where they have two highways that run north to south, parallel to each other, the length of the state. On of these well-used highways is a toll road, the other is a Federal highway. The toll road gets more use than the interstate because it is better-maintained and a better drive for commuters who work in NYC. I also once lived in FL on a barrier island, where the bridge had a 50 cents toll. I could by a resident's pass for $30 per year for unlimited use of the bridge, whereas weekend visitors going to the beach would just pay the 50 cents coming and going. Utah has the ability to implement these types of fund-raisers, and wean ourselves off of Federal dependency. For that matter, if all states would do that, we could ultimately reduce our income tax!
Why is this so hard to understand. If I said "I'm broke, my house is close to foreclosure, my credit cards are maxed out and I've been using them to buy my groceries. I'm just going to go ahead and take that cruise I booked last year, after all I already allocated the money" everyone reading this would destroy me and call me every name in the book. We are broke and have destroyed my grandchildren'a opportunity to even think about owning what we have. Senator Hatch, I have been defending your "changes" and have said to just give you time to see if you really meant what you've been saying. Clearly, you don't get it either.